In addition to Star trek, one of my favorite shows is NCIS, the shows lead character Jethro Gibbs is a absolute badass, except he just can't fight hand to hand,. When he gets into it with a suspect or whoever he often barely holds his own. or gets trashed. That isn't the way the America Hero is usually depicted, but it doesn't diminish him overall, he's still a badass.

John Archer personally sees himself as a intellectual, this is his self image. He want to be urban, achieving his goal through words. He just never learned to fight, not effectively.

On the contrary, his lack of fighting skill makes him all the more courageous heading into a fight, knowing he's probably gonna take a beating. Plus, many of his fights were against physically superior persons; wacko Vulcans, giant reptile Xindi and augmented dudes.

ENT showed that humankind was a bit naive when they went out there, desiring to peacefully explore the galaxy yet meeting quite some unfriendly fellows. Archer's lack of physical fighting training (First Flight; besides being a pilot the guy didn't have any training) merely reflects this general human naivety.

Amazing how that two-handed chop was so effective at completely incapacitating the bad guys!....

Most WWF tapes had been lost during WWIII, and the world had lost all knowledge of classic pro wrestling tactics. Fortunately for Kirk, tapes were rediscovered in the early 2200s and he was able to learn and use these moves. Poor old Archer was on his own.

Archer was a glorified astronaut. It's like saying Neil Armstrong wasn't badass (he was by the way) Enterprise was about protraying humanity as more of a fragile race stepping into the unknown. The other shows featured an already prominent and mighty Federation which the rest of the galaxy took seriously.

This makes the most sense to me. I like to think that Archer getting his ass so thoroughly trounced is part of what led to Starfleet expanding its physical training programmes to include stuff like Sisko's wrestling team.

This makes the most sense to me. I like to think that Archer getting his ass so thoroughly trounced is part of what led to Starfleet expanding its physical training programmes to include stuff like Sisko's wrestling team.

That and the integration of MACO, I suppose.

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I was actually poking fun at the "he was the first captain!" excuse everyone else uses for Archer's other faults.

Archer was a glorified astronaut. It's like saying Neil Armstrong wasn't badass (he was by the way) Enterprise was about protraying humanity as more of a fragile race stepping into the unknown. The other shows featured an already prominent and mighty Federation which the rest of the galaxy took seriously.